An absent author, rehearsing actors, six characters, an unwritten script, heart-rending incidents, philosophical arguments, upturned dramatic conventions - all contribute to a unique play within a play. This is Luigi Pirandello's SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR, which was originally staged in 1921.
Pirandello's meta-theatrical masterpiece is seen as one of the earliest precursors of the absurd play. In truth it functions as three different plays wound up in one - a play about stagecraft and dramaturgy; a philosophical piece about illusion and reality and a powerful human drama with themes of angst, remorse, guilt, revenge, and scorn.
Tpot's production draws forth the human element in Pirandello's work and takes it centerstage. This not only tones down some of the inherent formal complexity but also attempts to make it more engaging, immediate and relatable. One watches with much interest the conflict between father (Benjamin Gilani) and step-daughter (Trishla Patel) who have shared an accidental incestuous moment or with pity the hapless mother's (Malika Singh) yearning for her estranged son (Rahil Gilani). The actor/character debate central to Pirandello's writing assumes a lighter tone under Trishla Patel's direction.
As the actors and the characters intermingle, they talk casually about auditions and about beefing up; they mime, they move and groove to the Cell Block Tango from the musical Chicago, a not quite realised piece of music in this instance. The light design by Hidayat Sami focuses on the constant shift between the two 'plays' that are simultaneously unfolding. Madame Pace appears as a localised Aunty Shernaz- a garish, cussing, red-haired, big woman who tries but not quite successfully to bring in the comic relief that Pirandello intended. In a feeble attempt to create humour, Patel chooses to have a man play the part and Aunty Shernaz is reduced to a caricature of a foul-mouthed Parsi woman who dosen't quite get her cuss words right.
The performances by and large are nothing special with the exception of Benjamin Gilani without whom the production would flounder. He is in every way the star and the saving grace. Sukhant Gohil who plays the director is well-timed and fluid in his performance while Rihan Gilani manages to be distant and grim as is expected of his character. Malika Singh as the mother ups the emotional quotient in the second act when she breaks down.
Parts of the play however are lost for they are neither serious nor farcical. A case in point is the badminton game that leads up to Pirandello's oft-quoted: "A character, Sir, may always ask a man who he is. Because a character has really a life of his own, marked with his special characteristics; for which reason he is always 'somebody'. But a man -- I'm not speaking of you now -- may very well be 'nobody'."
The scene is both distracting and hurried.
Costumes and make up too could do with reworking since the characters look somewhat ghoulish and starkly different from the actors thereby diluting Pirandello's pivotal illusion/reality puzzle. Nonetheless, the production makes an effort of putting Pirandello on stage without inhibition or pretension. The author is missing but his quintessence reigns throughout.
